SPIRIT MESSAGES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 239, 5 January 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

SPIRIT MESSAGES.

PRACTICAL ADVICE BY AN EXPERT.

If we accept the idea —and experience shows it to \>q a true one —that spirits so called are simply human beings in another stage of evolution, the whole mass of sham mystery and superstition which hangs about the subject of ghosts is cleared away at a stroke. The dead are living a natural life n ;i natural world, the means of regular communication with which from this wr.rld is only beginning to be understood by study and experiment. I am asked to give some hints on the method of "spirit intercourse," as it is called, and I cannot do better than quote from the advice to inquirers, written many years ago by "M.A. (Oxen)," the late Rev. William Stainton Moses.

Where it is impossible to join a gathering of experienced spiritualists, he advises inquirers to form a circle oi from four to eight persons, half of passive or negative temperament (preferably of the female sex) and the rest of a more positive type; they should sit positive and negative alternately, secure against disturbance, and in a subdued light round an uncovered table of convenient size, with their hands flat on its upper surface. They should indulge in cheerful talk (dullness is an unfavourable condition), and they should not concentrate attention on the expected manifestation. Good music is often a great help.

WHEN RAPS ARE HEARD

If the tablo moves, or raps are heard, tho sitters should quietly -satisfy themselves that the tilts and raps are not tho results of ordinary causes, but are actual attempts at communication made by friends ''on the other side." Then a spokesman should be appointed for the circle, to ask questions and obtain directions regarding the best methods of pursuing the inquiry. One rap or tilt may b? taken to mean "No," three "Yes," and two to express doubt or uncertainty. "M.A. (Oxon)" adds the following advice, which is too important to omit: "Try the results you get by the light o! reason. Maintain a level head and

:. clear judgment. Do not believe everything yJou are told, for, though the great unseen world contains many •! wise and discerning spirit, it also has ii! it the accumulation of human folly, vanity, and error, and this lies nearer the surface than that which is wis, l and good. Distrust the free use of great name.s. Never for a moment abandon the use of your reason. Do not enter into a very solemn investigation in a spirit of idle curiosity or frivolity." GOOD MEDIUMS AND BAD. It should be understood that the practical directions for obtaining communications given above Wong to the early stages of the inquiry. More advanced methods come with the careful development of clairvoyance (clear seeing}, clairaudience (cleai- hearing), writing and speaking mediumship, and other phases too numerous and complicated to enter into here. The possession of these gifts of voyance or any other supposed supernatural powers does not m any way guarantee their possessor to be any better than other persons, but merely more sensitive. I have met, in the course of a long career amongst people with supernormal powers in every class or life, some who were persons of high intelligence and blameless lives, and others who .were very much the reverse. But the dangers of the subject are mainly for the. foolish and the vicious. Many people are lx>rn with what are called psychical fatuities, and these powers come into action naturally; in other cases they are latent, but called into activity by practice and training on the lines laid down above Many of the "fortune-telling" fraternity are the genuine possessors ot supernormal gilts, but as these are never at the command of the owner A any moment, he (or she) is liable to eke out the mysterious power with bogus imitations.